Spice Girls fans, hold your breath – Posh just turned 40. Now, while her days of choker necklaces and spaghetti straps are long gone (for now), Victoria Beckham has managed to carry that simple, timeless, “little Gucci dress” aesthetic from pop stardom to businesswoman to motherhood. In honor of her big day, elle.com has catalogued 40 of her most memorable looks – and they’re, not surprisingly, much more versatile than her Spice World getups.

For as long as this celeb has been in the spotlight, she’s seldom let her style guard down. As in, every time she wears flats, it’s breaking news. (In a quick Google search, I counted all of two times. In 17 years. No biggie.) With the possible exception of her no-flats rule, we should all take cues. Because if this is what 40 looks like, sign me up.

Fashion, like history, often repeats itself. Case in point: platforms. With each generation, the high-style shoe seems to reappear. So, before you go tossing out last season’s wedges, let’s take a look at where platforms came from and how they’ve been reinvented time and again.